Companions that never were

[john_amend_all]

lurking_latinist wondered who the AI-generated companions Duncan, Lloyd and Stardust might be.

I created some prompt text for the generator (basically, taking the companions' names and capsule biographies from TV Tropes, for Susan up to Harry). Then I'd add the requested character's name and hit the Big Blue Button.

Duncan: A young bartender who once was a soldier in the Colonial Wars. On board the TARDIS he helped to keep the Doctor occupied. They had a drunken stupor (and instant attraction) and in the morning Duncan appeared to be dead. The Doctor, thinking it was the last thing he'd ever see, arranged for Duncan to be arrested as a potential terrorist. When the authorities declined to do this, the Doctor took it upon himself to fake Duncan's death and somehow get him to UNIT.

Lloyd: A part-time grave digger from the 1920s, who also possessed the ability to teleport and seemed to have an almost telepathic connection to animals.

Stardust: An American girl whose parents were killed by the Xindi, and who is caught in the time storm that happened just prior to the War of the Worlds. The only Time Lord to be captured by the Scourge of the Dominion. Her birthday is 11 September, just before the attacks on the Earth. She's the only companion to receive a name in her first appearance and to have that name survive until her final episode, with the exception of UNIT doctor Jessica Jenkins, who is given her first name in her next appearance.

Because of the way the generator works, it would sometimes go on to add more text after completing the biography I asked it for. This one came after Lloyd:

Zoe: The TARDIS accidentally accelerated into an erogenous zone.

*boggles*

And these after Stardust:

Alice: Chief administrator for UNIT who was thrown out of the Brigadier's office when she expressed distaste for the new doctor. In the presence of the Doctor, she seemed attracted to him but then completely lacked any romantic interest in him afterwards. She's also the only companion to actually have a complete voice-over in the opening titles, instead of being castrated in cartoon form (as was the case for time-travelers Thirteen, Jo Grant, Susan Foreman and The Brigadier).

('Castrated'? I don't think that word means what you think it means, generator).

Mavis Pond: A member of the public caught up in the Xindi attack. Mavis becomes The Doctor's companion, assuming the identity of her niece Mavis (as her parents had been killed).

(The generator is clearly very keen on its Star Trek: Enterprise crossover).

While I'm still on the subject of AI, I recall seeing a Spectator article along 'Journalists are all doomed, we'll be replaced by AI text generators' lines. What caught my eye was the prediction that fanfic would be one of the first areas of writing to succumb to the robot hordes. I can certainly see a place for robot-generated fanfic (particularly for someone whose interest was in a niche pairing *cough* Jamie/Sam *cough*), but since fanfic is a hobby that scratches a writer's itch I find it hard to believe that there wouldn't still be humans doing it the old-fashioned way.

(I did once try to get an AI to generate Lucie/Karen, priming it with the text of Professional Development. It just output more bickering, except that each time Karen insulted Lucie she'd conclude her remark with a kiss).

Comments

[romanajo123]

Big Finish might turn these into a spinoff one day

[john_amend_all]

I don't think I'd put anything past them :-)

[shivver]

That bit in the Spectator article demonstrates a misunderstanding of why there's a backlash against AI-generated content. AI creating visual art isn't going to stop people from creating their own art; the problem is that if AI art is as good as human-produced art, artists will not be able to find work as artists - why pay salaries or fees to stables of artists when you can just buy software to do the same thing?

Writing AI may do the same thing to journalists and authors, but as you pointed out, it won't affect hobbyists.

[john_amend_all]

What may be more likely is, rather than a complete AI takeover, the use of AI tools becoming more common among fan writers. In which case you'd still get fanfic under their name, but how much of it was written by them would be a different question.

[shivver]

Ah, I see what you mean. I'm still dubious, though. Certainly there are people who may turn to AI to create that story that they've always wanted to see but couldn't or wouldn't write themselves (such as my husband, who comes up with the best ideas but has no interest in writing; I get to steal the ideas and make them my own), but I think for most writers, the act of creation is the payout (the itch, as you say), and letting a computer do it for you won't be much of an attraction other than to try it out once or twice.

[thisbluespirit]

There are already quite a few AI-written pieces on AO3! Although I think people are mainly just being experimental or messing around, or, like JOhn says, creating a ship fic with little effort.

I mean, yes, it's a hobby for the love of it, so I don't think it's going to take over, but people will use it and probably increasingly, for fic, particularly, because there's no rules and no editor to send it back and say, write it yourself, Bob, I can tell when you've fed it to an AI. Also, crack is a tradition.

[shivver]

Then there's this question... I give one of these AIs something to work off of and it spits out 10k words of the Doctor running around doing stuff. I read it and it's garbage, but I rearrange sections, fix the plot, rewrite stuff, etc... at what point am I the author of the resulting reasonable story?

[thisbluespirit]

And a very good question it is too!

[thisbluespirit]

Duncan, Lloyd and Stardust made me laugh a lot. Especially Duncan. Presumably he's from the NAs, possibly also some really random comic one when they were being edgy.

Random gravedigger companion is great, though.

I've been ill again - but I did read the other post and especially liked the exchange rules. The AI tools may be limited in some ways but they were spot on at creating the exact feel of that exchange being run by a new mod who's an anti or similar and wants to make sure no one writes anything they disapprove of. XD

ETA: also may have died laughing when it got to 'castrated'. What???

[john_amend_all]

A part-time gravedigger from 100 years ago (no doubt with a thick back-country accent) sounds like the companion we never knew we wanted. And of course, travelling with the Doctor, his gravedigging skills would find a whole lot of use...

The choice of 'castrated' reminds me of a quotation I saw from a review by Dorothy L Sayers where she said something like "If the author can't find the right word, anything approximate will do."

[thisbluespirit]

I'm a big fan of Lloyd, totally a fave out of BF companions already! XD

[liadt]

I think Duncan is scrambled Jamie, so are the Doctor and co. back in the world of fiction?

Totally want a grave digger companion now.

[john_amend_all]

Lloyd must live!

[lurking_latinist]

These do get, er, interesting. Add me to the list of Lloyd fans, though. He can teleport!

[john_amend_all]

For some reason I'm reminded slightly of Phil Rickman's book The Wine of Angels, where all through the book he leaves it ambiguous whether there's magic going on or it's all in the characters' heads. And then suddenly at the climax you realise "Hang on, she just @$!ing teleported!"

[lurking_latinist]

Sounds intriguing!